Collins Belton @collins_belton Twitter profile

Last Seen Profiles

@richyieze

@karmagitya

@Bdooo_r00

@SerialDesiN25

@AriadneLabs

@Kris83263646281

@TaylorJana_

@Uirusu_chan

@sogeocol

@baconator_thee

@kttyp0wer

@P_Light

@veiudao

@APetersonMed

@Uro_Oncologist

@indenji

@DrStarline

@TheGenderQueen

@RosanTouchet

@foreignamelia

@mikeonthemarne

@EliteEncha88666

@AZAContact

@dilzzcoxs

@pengen_stw

@BGSUMBB

@tallami1

@llove_meee

@vitalitas_real

@camkardashi

@yurisathler

@aiyhav2

@tioghnari

@axelarnetwork

Collins Belton

@collins_belton

3 years

I guess now is as good of a time as any to announce that I’m officially retired from private practice as of last month to focus fully on crypto. If you’re weird enough to care why some random lawyer dweeb left his job and what’s next, a few thoughts below.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

2 years

@GaryGensler @andrewrsorkin @SquawkCNBC Ideally you’ll spend some time to explain how, once again, the commission’s enforcement priorities focused on entities trying to deploy technology to prevent these market failures & asymmetries while you were meeting with the perpetrators or overlooking their malfeasance?

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

2 years

Cannot stress how angry I am that the SEC and @GaryGensler + predecessors spent years harassing DeFi builders trying to move us away from opacity and literally missed all of these obvious risks that die hards have been screeching about for years.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

1 year

This is a perfect ex: - CB has 30+ meetings with SEC - Spends millions drafting a registration proposal despite that literally being the SEC's job - Gets ghosted by SEC for 9+ mo - Promised meeting for clarity with SEC cancelled on 1 day notice - CB sued for being a bad actor???

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

2 years

@katienotopoulos Given this paragraph below, what public interest did it serve to dox these folks? It doesn't seem like you think there's any public harm and the identity of these people without something more doesn't seem to be in the public interest to the point of violating their privacy.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

3 years

While I can't say I'm surprised, I'm happy @coinbase is shedding light on how @SECGov 's approach is actively disincentivizing proactive engagement and compliance. The hypocrisy of asking for engagement and subsequently stonewalling willing participants should be made public.

Coinbase 🛡️

@coinbase

3 years

After months of trying to engage with the @SECGov on our planned Coinbase Lend product, we recently received notice that it intends to pursue legal action against us. We believe dialogue is at the heart of good regulation, even if the SEC may not.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

3 years

Putting aside my thoughts on the SEC's behavior and hypocrisy, I think the below sentence buried in @coinbase 's posts deserves special attention separate from the securities law chicanery. This should leave you uncomfortable.

Collins Belton

@collins_belton

3 years

While I can't say I'm surprised, I'm happy @coinbase is shedding light on how @SECGov 's approach is actively disincentivizing proactive engagement and compliance. The hypocrisy of asking for engagement and subsequently stonewalling willing participants should be made public.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

1 year

Wow, ok so this story has gone from strange to downright “what the actual hell is happening” with swiftness. The commission fees to the sketch BD with China ties is a big red flag and highly atypical to anyone familiar with venture in the US, especially in finreg. Great sleuthing

Matt Walsh

@MattWalshInBos

1 year

This Prometheum storyline has got to be the strangest thing I have seen in awhile in this industry. Has anyone actually looked into this? Beyond bizarre…

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

3 years

BSC seemingly broken, @elonmusk rugging Bitcoin, @VitalikButerin rugging dogcoins, Facebook capitulating on Libra, and the Asia session hasn't even started. Haven't seen a day like this in a while.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

1 year

OK maybe I have missed this, but it seems to me that no one asked @GaryGensler an obvious question: If the rules we currently have are sufficient, why have 2 of the most significant frauds in history occurred under his purview, and why did the current rules fail to prevent them?

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

3 years

Did you catch what happened there? This is not the SEC asking for the info of people who have engaged in some illegal activity. This is @SECGov just asking for the info of people *merely interested* in a product that *may* be offered in the future.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

6 months

With the Bitcoin ETF news now official, I think it’s important to recognize how critical it was for Grayscale to be willing to go to the mat and engage our judicial process for us to get here. @GaryGensler essentially concedes as much in his statement:

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

4 years

Hot FUD: A landmark regulatory decision for #DeFi is likely coming that will serve as its DAO Report. A few players are more vulnerable to regulatory action IMO: (1) Decentralization Flirts, (2) Permissioned Stablecoins and (3) wrapper/offchain custodians. Thread (1/lot):

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

2 years

I believe this CFTC Order may end up being one of the most relevant and telling regulatory actions for DeFi founders and investors yet. More than any other prior order, the CFTC directly emphasizes and assesses some of the key elements of "true" DeFi platforms in this order.

CoinDesk

@CoinDesk

2 years

JUST IN: The @CFTC has fined @PolymarketHQ $1.4 million and ordered it to wind down certain markets by Jan. 14. @nikhileshde reports

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

1 year

LOL @MattWalshInBos it gets better! I checked the broker dealer site only to see this and had to laugh out loud remembering that this is the same iced tea company that “pivoted” to blockchain in the 2017 bull run:

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

4 years

Watching everyone go from "LOL I don't know what I'm buying" to "REEEEE YOU SHOULD HAVE STOPPED ME FROM MY OWN FOMO" in 7 minutes really gives me confidence that you all are ready to be your own bank.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

2 years

While I’m not surprised, this is arguably the most significant legal action that has occurred in crypto and could have absolutely gargantuan ripple effects for everything from dev liability to first amendment implications of code publication.

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@tier10k

2 years

[DB] US TREASURY SANCTIONS TORNADO CASH: WWEBSITE

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

3 years

First, to be clear, I still will be keeping my firm up and running, but will no longer be taking paying clients for the most part. Instead, I’d like to provide free legal advice to 1) 1st time founders and 2) underrepresented founders.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

3 years

Man, @valkenburgh is arguably one of the closest people I can think of that rivals the founders and other seminal philosophers across time in some of the ways he thinks about and frames the purpose of government and the structure of financial systems.

Documenting ₿itcoin 📄

@DocumentingBTC

3 years

A must-watch U.S House of Representatives testimony on the ethos and strength of #Bitcoin by @Valkenburgh today.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

1 year

@GaryGensler Thanks for the additional clarity Chair. To ensure the market can continue moving towards a model of compliance, could you confirm for us when ALGO’s coin model transmuted from an “interesting” mechanism to a noncompliant offering? Much appreciated.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

2 years

@lukesotheraccn1 @eTrue250 @smf_chi @wvrcomarco @TrayD12 LMAO you're wrong for this family, if he did that Will would have been forced to become a felon that evening.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

3 years

In what world would collecting their PII (and presumably things like their wallet information) make sense if not to just generally track their behavior. What does @SECGov plan to do with this? This seems like something worthy of a FOIA request.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

2 years

@hasufl It's hilarious to me how many people want the benefits of equity / equity like instruments and then try to ferret out of any of the obligations or negative implications of being an equity owner. You are literally the owner of the business; if it has failed, *you* are responsible

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

3 years

Listening to @SBF_FTX talk about trying to comply with multiple country's crypto regulatory and licensure regimes is incredible and also highlights why I chuckle when people talk only about US regulators. These issues are not going to be limited to the US, buckle up.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

7 months

Imagine going back to 2011 and showing the OWS crew @SenWarren eagerly supporting Jamie Dimon’s perspective that a payment network uncontrolled by Wall Street with unprecedented (and frankly unsafe) levels of transparency is the true threat to America. Fascinating.

Bitcoin Magazine

@BitcoinMagazine

7 months

JUST IN - JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon: "I've always been deeply opposed to crypto, #Bitcoin , etc." "If I were the government I'd close it down."

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

3 years

This leads to another reason I left: I don't agree with many of the policy positions I’ve had to advise on over the past few years. In particular, I think many of the components of our surveillance regimes are morally reprehensible and erode our safety and common humanity.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

1 year

Pretty disgusted to see the attitude of many Americans on this because they clearly think this bank was exclusively serving “rich tech bros” because of the name.

Kristy Tillman

@KristyT

1 year

My friend runs a community housing development organization and their accounts and grants are tied up in this mess. I hope the non tech angle gets covered as well.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

3 years

Honestly, the most interesting thing about BSC is that, all things being equal, $AVAX is an almost identical experiment from a UX perspective with less baggage, better decentralization arguments and CEX exposure yet is completely disregarded by commentators compared to BSC.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

1 year

Well, I chose the wrong morning to start late. Hard to TL;DR this one. To try - CFTC Alleging: - Unregistered deriv platform/broker - Knowingly offered products to ineligible US - Knowingly allowed crime/terrorism proceeds - Cartel real - IMO, more likely 2 come from DOJ

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@tier10k

1 year

CFTC V Binance

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

2 years

Can’t believe it even needs to be noted that the Constitution and Equal Protection Clause do in fact still exist in 2022, and that the government can’t…*checks notes*…ban an entire race or ethnicity from participating in life and commerce. We kind of had a war about this…

Investing.com

@Investingcom

2 years

*COINBASE SAYS AT THIS TIME, WE WILL NOT INSTITUTE A BLANKET BAN ON ALL COINBASE TRANSACTIONS INVOLVING RUSSIAN ADDRESSES - RTRS $COIN

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

1 year

NO CHANCE LMAO. Yoinking this from @propelforward This BD was involved in ANOTHER blockchain grift the SEC actually pursued for fraud in 2019!

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

2 years

But alot of what we’re seeing now as the result of straight up fraud, manipulation, obfuscation, and general lack of disclosure from centralized entities in control of large stacks of the industry is EXACTLY why real DeFi and crypto generally exists.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

3 years

Reason I think this is important is b/c I have personally witnessed how many first time/underrepresented founders can get screwed by not understanding “the game” and it is very difficult to get pro bono help for corporate work (people expect you to be rich and can therefore pay).

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

11 months

Wow, if this is true, Tether is apparently holding more US T Bills than all of the UAE and many other countries. At this point, regardless of what you believe on their history, I think it’s hard to see the USG railroading these guys easily anymore.

Paolo Ardoino 🤖🍐

@paoloardoino

11 months

Today Tether shares its attestation for Q2/2023 (2023-06-30). Another quarter, another massive result. I'm immensely proud of our team. Hightlights 1. Q2/2023 Tether's operational profits > $1B. How? The main component of the profits are the interests on the T-Bills that Tether

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

3 years

Engagement Quest: ✅ Wife Buff: ✅ Permanent Plant Jungle in Your Home Debuff: Also ✅ Thanks for the CT friends who helped me on the quest, love y’all for being there for me.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

1 year

@SenWarren @RonWyden @PCAOB_News A crypto bank folded and is so far able to cover all deposits and make their creditors whole. A regular bank is in the process of melting down with undisclosed liabilities and an unclear path to repayment for creditors, and your focus is on increased auditing stds for crypto?

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

4 years

The "Mnuchin Rule" is finally out, and so far, the only thing I can describe it as is an aggressive invasion of individual privacy supported by some of the worst legal and policy contortion rationale I've seen in a while.

Jake Chervinsky

@jchervinsky

4 years

FinCEN has proposed a new rule extending AML regulation to "unhosted wallets." If adopted, the rule would require regulated companies to verify the name & address of non-custodial wallet users for any transaction > $3k. Public comments are due January 4.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

8 months

First, the admin suggests that they intend to prioritize privacy preservation by...seeking to leverage applied cryptographic solutions. This is the same admin who has sanctioned and arrested developers of *presently working* applied cryptographic privacy solutions.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

3 years

I hate sounding like the paranoid tin foiler, but this is part of the reason why I also have increasingly shied away from sharing things with CEX's when I can. The level of detail a crypto wallet exposes on your personal life is so much greater than many other tradfi things.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

1 year

What a dissent. One thing that really frustrates me about the state of things at the SEC is the fact that there’s almost a disregard for legal precedent and SEC practice. In some ways this is understandable since @GaryGensler is not a lawyer and not legally trained.

Hester Peirce

@HesterPeirce

1 year

In addition to ironing this t-shirt (which republishes code from a comment letter), will I need to register as an exchange before wearing it? "It depends," per the SEC's latest release:

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

3 years

I also expect to loop in a lot of legal colleagues for a publicly available series of discussions on running startups/crypto companies at least 2x/month as a thanks to all of the builders who helped make me who I am. Once details are ironed out, will announce and have sign ups.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

2 years

Astounding that this CEO scorned employees for rightly calling out what can only be described as biblical level mismanagement impacting thousands of people’s lives after the opportunities afforded by an historic money generating era for the business was completely squandered.

Coinbase 🛡️

@coinbase

2 years

Coinbase CEO @brian_armstrong announced today the difficult decision to reduce the size of the Coinbase team by 18%. More details and rationale in Brian’s email to employees, which has been made public for all to see ➡️

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

8 months

The A.I. executive order fact sheet is out, although people should be careful to note this is just a summary and not the full order. That said, a few amazingly ironic gems here worth taking a look at:

FACT SHEET: President Biden Issues Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Artificial...

Today, President Biden is issuing a landmark Executive Order to ensure that America leads the way in seizing the promise and managing the risks of artificial intelligence (AI). The Executive Order...

www.whitehouse.gov

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

1 year

Alright I’m officially on the conspiracy theorist bandwagon, if for no other reason than the fact that I need entertainment if this is a beary summer. Reminder - this is just their BD. That said, given financing sources & this firm history, sleuthing is warranted

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

3 years

I’m not going to have a chance to read until later but myself and colleague/mentor @lex_node are apparently cited by @HesterPeirce here. I try to play the chill and collected card often, but I can’t lie; this is one of the coolest moments of my career.

Hester Peirce

@HesterPeirce

3 years

If government wants to bring law to crypto, it should behave lawfully:

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

1 year

I remain genuinely impressed at the number of teams in this industry that seem to prioritize innovating new ways to obliterate goodwill and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. One of the more novel talents of this little hamlet of ours.

Eden Au

@0xedenau

1 year

Arbitrum foundation made a proposal (AIP-1) to allocate 750M ARB tokens for admin and op costs, but $ARB holders voted against it Now they said the vote was just a formality, and they have already spent 50.5M (6.7%) of the proposed 750M $ARB Your vote is not vote

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

3 years

More to come here in the next few weeks, but current thinking is that I’ll offer at least 2 days a month where people can sign up for pro bono engagements and discuss high level corporate/crypto/venture capital issues.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

1 year

So, is it time to start discussing how a certain US firm not from the Windy City has been responsible for structuring & enabling the likes of FTX with crazy cross border shenanigans and today’s governance theatre, or are too many of you still beholden to them? Just asking Qs.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

1 year

OK, a quickie. TL;DR. SEC alleges: - Binance/CZ fraudulently repped independence of Binance US and intl - BCZ operating unregistered exchange/BD/clearing agency - $SOL, $ADA, $MATIC, $ATOM, $BNB, $BUSD (!) + more + staking programs are securities - Requests asset freeze (!)

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@tier10k

1 year

[DB] SEC Sues Binance and CEO Zhao of Breaking US Securities Rules: Bloomberg

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

3 years

@mikedemarais @lex_node It’s absolutely amazing that they have millions of people offering to extend our dollar hegemony and they are adamantly refusing to take the W. I don’t even bother arguing this angle b/c it’s so baffling there’s nothing I can think to argue to make the point clearer.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

3 years

I don’t want to continue being the dude advising people to block everyone from an entire region of the world because some jingoistic policy from the 70s exists. As a descendent of people who came out of oppression, I don't have much of a desire to propagate more of it globally.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

5 years

So, as many predicted, looks like #Libra is all but DOA unless @davidmarcus and FB pull off a minor miracle. I’m going to say something that will probably get me shunned by some - I think this should upset a lot of people. Not because the result isn’t great for crypto (it is)...

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

10 months

Ah, what’s that you say? Yet another court able to understand that we don’t just run roughshod over civil liberties and seek to airdrop liability to entrepreneurs whose platforms get misused by others? This is genuinely shocking.

Palley

@stephendpalley

10 months

Putative Uniswap class action dismissed by Judge Failla in SDNY. Among other things, challenges notion that software platform can be held liable for damage caused by third party misuse of software code.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

1 month

I cannot understand how so many crypto criminals are simultaneously imbued with the intelligence of Reed Richards and spoiled Jello. Please, I am begging you just so that I don't have to keep reading these idiotic moves in complaints: Watch the Wire.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

4 years

Don’t you dare forget to report your 0.5 ETH gain to papà IRS though, filthy peasants.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

2 years

I’m not one of the people who hates all modern media outlets but they seem to intentionally be making it a Sisyphean feat to defend the integrity of the profession with the quality of FTX reporting.

Forbes

@Forbes

2 years

Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison is a math whiz who loves Harry Potter and taking big risks. She is also one of the supporting players in Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX catastrophe — and a new darling of the alt-right. Read more:

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

3 years

I raise this often as a common counter to people trying to paint everyone in crypto as some type of criminal. The irony of people using some of the largest, centralized parties asking for regulation and not getting it as a cudgel to bludgeon us all with is absurd.

Laura Shin

@laurashin

3 years

Why is @collins_belton frustrated with the SEC? Because he feels the SEC is being “disingenuous” in their portrayal of cryptocurrency companies. He specifically cites a “catch-22,” where the SEC asks companies to register but won’t offer approval. Link:

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

1 year

Obviously, the exchange rests in a quantum state of registration. When Uncle Joe uses it, it is in its registered state. When you all use it, it is in its unregistered, criminal state. This is very elementary, but I recognize education standards have fallen in recent years.

◢ J◎e McCann 🧊

@joemccann

1 year

Just so we’re clear, US regulators sent @coinbase a Wells Notice while the US government also sent $217M of bitcoin to @coinbase to sell said bitcoin.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

1 month

First MEV Related indictment. Parsing the complaint now, but there's a lot of language in here that would be applicable to general sandwich attacks and other MEV activity IMO. Perhaps of some comfort is the fact that false signatures were key here:

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

3 years

@coinbase is just the first to share this request, but I can assure you the SEC has asked and will likely continue to ask others this type of stuff despite the fact that they have no reason to believe these people have engaged in anything untoward.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

1 year

OK, after an initial skim, there is ALOT going on and this may arguably be the most important SEC case brought to date for them to test MULTIPLE theories, but one of the biggest takeaways: they’re alleging everything in Luna eco - UST, Luna, wLuna & MIR assets were securities.

CoinDesk

@CoinDesk

1 year

The SEC is suing Terraform Labs, the company behind the failed TerraUSD stablecoin, and its co-founder Do Kwon for securities fraud. By @NelWang

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

2 years

As someone who had a “controversial” view that Virgil’s actions were stupid and criminal, let me be very clear that this sentencing is bullshit in a country where billionaires pillaged our coffers through fraudulent mortgage schemes and facilitated billions of money laundering.

Inner City Press

@innercitypress

2 years

Judge Castel: Virgil Griffith has no ideology. He'll play off both sides, as long as he is at the center. I sentence him to 63 months in prison and a fine of $100,000.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

2 months

Wow, this might be this cycle’s EOS moment. Almost an undisputed win for CZ short of a miracle and also really undermines the credibility of recent DOJ/FinCEN actions after emphasizing their view that it was a den of wickedness and terrorism.

*Walter Bloomberg

@DeItaone

2 months

BINANCE FOUNDER CHANGPENG ZHAO GETS FOUR MONTHS IN PRISON

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

2 years

@pleasesendmebtc @CryptoKaleo @CredibleCrypto Literally just companies being economically rational being framed as wokeness lol, incredible.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

1 year

Also just hilarious that the US is seemingly doing everything it can to hobble one of the key institutions trying to comply and help policy making while the behemoth wantonly devours the globe while laughing at our frameworks. Definitely the right priorities.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

3 years

What’s next? Who knows! I plan to do some limited advising on protocols/projects I really believe in, but not full time. I also have a half decade of games, anime, family life and cooking to catch up on, and I plan to get back into coding, so I think I’ll stay busy for a while.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

1 month

This happening probably heralds the arrival of the crypto class as a political group. Would be an insane change of events given all the background chatter the past few weeks.

Scott Johnsson

@SGJohnsson

1 month

This would be absolutely monumental beyond just thinking about the ETF flows. Politically. SEC position re: ETH security question. Insane if this happens.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

3 years

Best part about this all? I no longer proof read tweets so I'm sure the post is replete with typos and I AM REVELING IN THE TYPOS.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

3 years

@AdorablPenguin @wheatpond You don’t need to live where you work though. And, setting up a business with a lot of capital typically allots you more options for visa sponsorship.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

1 year

Few minutes in and I’m already bewildered at why this man would come here and expose himself like this? Gonna hit some chamomile for this; getting too old to have my blood pressure spiking over internet debates. But as expected @RSSH273 is holding it down for the actual…law.

Laura Shin

@laurashin

1 year

❤️‍🔥 What is Prometheum? A compliant path for crypto or a catch-22? The debate about the SEC-friendly trading platform rages on. 🤼 Co-CEO Aaron Kaplan spars with Paradigm lawyer @RSSH273 over the state of U.S. crypto regulation. 🔊 Full episode:

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

1 year

UPDATED TAKE: If you're a @BinanceUS customer, withdraw right now. I'm not saying this because I think there's an imminent loss of funds, but only because I just noticed that the TRO proposes that customer funds only be transferable if CZ/existing Binance mgmt isn't involved.

Collins Belton

@collins_belton

1 year

As previewed yesterday, SEC requesting an asset freeze for Binance US. However, looks limited to Binance US, so I don't think this is going to be a material issue for Binance Intl atm. Could be bad for Binance US users though; probably not worth keeping things there.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

3 years

I also increasingly struggled with giving people “technically right” advice that often would harm them relative to people who essentially YOLO'd. I can’t do anything about the US intransigence to foster a better regulatory environment, but I also don’t want to be complicit.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

2 years

This reinforces what people like myself, @jchervinsky , @boironattorney , @lex_node and other DeFi attorneys have been trying to stress lately: If your FE is the only means of accessing your platform, regulators have strong incentive to bring you under their regulatory ambit.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

1 year

Blog post from CB now live. I'm actually fairly optimistic here. In particular, I think the overtures CB has repeatedly made to propose registration framework and request clarity that has gone ignored will play very well for them in court.

We asked the SEC for reasonable crypto rules for Americans. We got legal threats instead.

Alabama Voters Stand with Crypto

www.coinbase.com

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

3 years

Happy to follow up here and announce that I'm starting a pilot to open the pro bono clinic offer I extended below to first time and underrepresented founders. Thread w/ some info below, starting w/ a TL;DR since it’s a bit long, but please read if you intend to sign up.

Collins Belton

@collins_belton

3 years

More to come here in the next few weeks, but current thinking is that I’ll offer at least 2 days a month where people can sign up for pro bono engagements and discuss high level corporate/crypto/venture capital issues.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

1 year

Wow, seven pages in, and this may now be my go to in order to contextualize the absurdity of the current legal landscape in the U.S. Judges rarely opine on the egregiousness of government behavior the way J. Wiles is going in within even these first 7 pages.

paulgrewal.eth

@iampaulgrewal

1 year

Everyone committed to the rule of law should read J. Wiles' Voyager decision. These are remarkable statements from a federal court with no skin in the game other than calling things as they are.🧵⬇️ /www.nysb.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/opinions/312840_1170_opinion.pdf

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

1 year

Bizarre that so many US regulators have been so incredibly wrong on predictions or achieving enforcement aims recently yet have seemingly managed to avoid any repercussions for their failures.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

3 years

As for why I left? Being frank, I’ve been doing this for a while, the issues aren’t as challenging, and the admin work increasingly feels like a distraction. I love advising and working with my clients on strategy, tactics, raising, etc.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

1 year

Not sure if these are the entirety of the Hinman documents coming today but if so, I don’t think these are fatal for it’s $XRP case. If anything, it seems they didn’t want these out bc it will make it functionally VERY difficult to argue ETH specifically is a security.

bill morgan

@Belisarius2020

1 year

Next extract. But the OGC has concerns. It may impact on what the SEC says about Ethereum in the future. No problem with those concerns. Hinman spoke to Buterin and understands how Ether works. The Ether discussion stays in the speech. We no why. /8

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

2 years

Man at this point I expect US regs to be: Jamie Dimon and Jerome Powell must personally review each transaction before being submitted to the Yellenchain governing council before being processed through treasury compliant relayers consisting solely of Gary Gensler and Joe Biden

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

3 years

Witnessing the irony of a regulator exercising its power to protect its citizens from one danger of a new technology while simultaneously misunderstanding and abusing an ancient technology to inadvertently violate one of their other resident’s privacy rights. 🤌🏿👨🏿‍🍳

André 🇵🇹🇧🇪

@_andrenunes

3 years

@NeerajKA Top left corner

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

1 year

You see, it’s only an unregistered broker dealer when YOU use it. The rules are clear, children.

Hsaka

@HsakaTrades

1 year

"BlackRock will be using Coinbase (COIN) Custody for the ETF and the crypto exchange’s spot market data for pricing, the source said." It's almost as if the screenwriters realized they had forgot to write the next narrative and just refurbished the usual from the past.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

1 year

So uh... @RepRoKhanna and @SenAlexPadilla , you all just OK with an MA Senator from your party and the feds nuking a critical California institution in an errant attack on digital assets or...?

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

2 years

It’s just amazing to me that regulators globally fumbled this so badly in part because of arrogant skepticism that something like DeFi could actually work and become an untamable hydra. Now each day it becomes increasingly hard to get people to color in the lines.

_gabrielShapir0

@lex_node

2 years

it almost seems like blockchain projects that tried to go "the compliant" route are the *ONLY* ones that have failed developing a regulatory regime for crypto and DeFi that doesn't punish comply0000rs should be the #1 goal of all regulators (but isn't)

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

4 months

Wow, this would be a huge deal if passed. The change in accredited investor definitions to include investors limiting their investments to 10% of NW could change the investing landscape in America and give so many more people access to better opportunities.

Chris Harvey

@ChrisHarveyEsq

4 months

⬛ The U.S. House of Reps just passed a transformative bill for VCs & emerging fund managers: ✅️Expanding "Qualifying Venture Capital Funds": Increases investor limits for VC funds from 250 to 600 limited partners (LPs) and assets under management (AUM) from $10 million to

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

1 year

This is ultimately why, despite sharing nat sec concerns and recognizing data privacy issues with Tik Tok, I cannot support an outright ban on the “app.” There is no way to tailor a bill so narrowly and instead it will form the basis for new layers of surveillance and censorship.

Bit Paine ⚡️

@BitPaine

1 year

If the RESTRICT ACT (“Tiktok ban”) passes, it will be used to attempt a ban on #bitcoin . Have any of y’all actually read the text of the bill? This isn’t about Tiktok. This gives the executive branch total control to police the internet. Wake up.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

2 years

Incredible. This is now the third major meltdown that, had the commission been paying attention, they could have engaged with *prior to* the failure, & somehow @GaryGensler is about to do media rounds as Captain Hindsight? Is there anyone serious in this industry on either side?

Gary Gensler

@GaryGensler

2 years

I’ll be joining @andrewrsorkin on @SquawkCNBC at 8:00am ET to discuss recent developments in the crypto markets.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

3 years

No greater joy as a mortal than that “can we reschedule” email 9 minutes before the meeting starts. Yes, you Pythian God, of course you can inject joy right into my veins.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

2 years

Please read this from @lex_node if you are in DeFi. I’m not even going to say anything independent b/c I don’t want to dilute from such a strong call to action. Make no mistake, if implemented as is, this would be an absurd expansion of the SECs regulatory ambit.

_gabrielShapir0

@lex_node

2 years

I have reviewed the SEC's proposed amendment to Regulation ATS. As strongly hinted at by @HesterPeirce , it is a major threat to free speech, investor choice and technological innovation. More thoughts here:

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

1 year

For everything this man has done, we need to collectively step up and ensure that we don’t let wealthy ALLEGED scofflaws use their ALLEGEDLY ill gotten gains to silence critical work of arguably the most important person uncovering malfeasance for the betterment of the space.

ZachXBT

@zachxbt

1 year

1/ It’s unfortunate I have to make this thread but I am being sued by MachiBigBrother for an article I published in June 2022. Today Machi filed the defamation lawsuit. The lawsuit is baseless and an attempt to chill free speech. I intend to fight back & defend free speech.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

2 years

Excuse the language as I try to keep this professional, but I mean what the actual fuck is this when we have this level of chicanery going unpunished? THESE MFERS ACTUALLY FACILITATED NK BUILDING NUKES AND ONLY ARE PAYING $5K MORE W/O JAIL .

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

1 year

@CryptoKaleo Lol very weird for Christians to be cheering for the billionaire to fail at humiliating and not pay a dude with muscular dystrophy who spends his spare time doing charity work in his city

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

3 years

Maybe controversial, but this seems insanely “bullish” for the rest of the year if you’re concerned about surprise US legislation. Disappointing as an American, as it seems that the admin has no real direction reading between the lines.

Bloomberg Crypto

@crypto

3 years

EXCLUSIVE: The Biden administration is weighing an executive order on cryptocurrencies

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

3 years

But, that doesn’t mean I love being the guy drafting board consents, managing cap tables, handling investor relations, negotiating stupid points on NDAs or simple commercial contracts, etc. All of that takes away from being focused fully on the crypto issues that motivate me.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

2 years

Since I know everyone really loves legal talk taking over their TL, just a friendly and exciting reminder that many regulators, including the SEC, end their fiscal year Sept 30 and historically sprint to jam pack many enforcement actions in this period to pump YE figures.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

1 year

@laurashin Not 100%, but few theories: 1. Wants to avoid need to recuse in future actions; 2. Wants to avoid creating arguments that could be used against the SEC (e.g. see Ripple); 3. Wants to continue using ambiguity as a cudgel; 4. Doesn't want to galvanize action / provide standing

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

3 years

@StevenTDennis Seems like they’re about to let Manchin become Biden’s Lieberman. If they repeat the same mistakes they’ve got no one to blame but themselves.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

1 year

The more I think about this, the more hyped (yeah I'm a loser lawyer getting hyped for legal action, deal w it) I'm getting. Kind of like my superbowl. So many legal theories I've wanted to see put to a judicial test finally about to have their day.

paulgrewal.eth

@iampaulgrewal

1 year

So what happens next? We avail ourselves of the court system to finally start to get some clarity for the crypto industry in the U.S. Ironically, establishing some case law may be our best shot at getting the regulatory clarity that the industry deserves. 14/15

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

2 years

@CryptoKaleo @pleasesendmebtc @CredibleCrypto If anything it’s efficient and arguably the opposite of flawed. Insurance is designed for this and, if risk premiums increase too much from repeated problems, they’re forced to get better security or shut locations down. Vigilantism isn’t a scalable legal/commercial strategy.

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Collins Belton

@collins_belton

2 years

Absolutely dreading being the “crypto guy” watching the Super Bowl with friends today. May just preemptively break the tv every time an ad comes on and have like 400 replacements on deck.

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